Mass Communication Commons^™

A Case Study On Black Twitter’S Reactions To The Framing Of Blacks In Dove’S 2017 Facebook Advertisement, Shereena Farrington

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Insensitivity to racial issues has long been one of the main causes of controversy in the marketing field. Among many brands to have caused outrage across social media, is the notable brand, Dove. The criticism that the veteran brand received has shown that even experienced marketers can still find themselves being accused of insensitivity or even racism (Ma, 2018). The gaffe of an advertisement released by Dove in 2017, serves as the impetus for the need for diversity in brands. Given today’s complex society, the purpose of this study is to identify themes that emerged in Black Twitter’s responses to …

Developing Design Elements For A Parkinson’S Disease Informative Website: A Social Marketing Approach, Emilie R. Madsen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Parkinson’s disease is a neurodegenerative disease with no known cause or cure. No two cases are identical, meaning that every individual will present different symptoms and will have a different progression of the disease. Me Over PD is an initiative created to aid newly diagnosed PD patients and care partners in navigating the complexities surrounding the disease and live a more informed life with PD. Considering Me Over PD, the present research works to understand the experiences of PD patients and care partners upon diagnosis and after, and gauge what elements and information would be most beneficial to these individuals …

Book Review: Reluctant Interveners: America’S Failed Responses To Genocide From Bosnia To Darfur, Jeffrey Bachman

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

No abstract provided.

Media Fandom: Social Media Use And Collective Identity In China: A Case Study Of Z.Tao’S Weibo Fandom, Mier Sha

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

With the advancement of information and communication technologies (ICTs), social media platforms have been widely applied in the practices of media fandom. To determine the correlation between social media use and collective identity of celebrity fandom, the current study investigated Z.Tao’s Weibo fandom as a case conducting an online quantitative survey with 100 samples and 12 in-depth semi-structured interviews. The results show that social media use significantly facilitates the construction of collective identity of celebrity fandom on Weibo through fans’ experiences of ingroup interaction and outgroup interaction.

Evaluation Of Native Advertisement Though Third Person Effect Theory: An Experimental Design, Inga Nafetvaridze

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The main purpose of this research is to determine how people evaluate native advertising in order to figure out how ethical is a native advertising practice. The Third Person Effect Theory was applied to this study. It enables to examine people’s attitude toward native advertising. An experimental design was developed. Participants were exposed to three types of ads to find out if they are able to recognize native ads among other advertisements. The total number of participants was 386. The results were analyzed via ANOVA. The main finding of this study states that individuals perceive the native advertisement in a …

The Roles Of Emotional Cues And Purchasing Incentives In Wechat Commerce: A Content Analysis, Xuezhu Hao

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In recent years with the development of social media, a variety of business forms have also developed. In the United States, there are advertising and business forms based on social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. However, in China, WeChat is the mainstream social media platform with a staggering number of active online users. As a mainstream social media platform, WeChat has extended a new business form, which is the Micro-business. With the changes in purchasing needs and economic forms, more and more people are participating in Micro-business buying and selling transactions. The formation of a new type of …

People With Parkinson’S And Care Partners Of Pwps’ Uncertainty Management Through Information Strategies, Amy Haywood

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores how people with Parkinson’s (PwP) and care partners of PwP manage the uncertainty surrounding Parkinson’s disease (PD). PD causes both motor and cognitive decline in patients, which may affect each individual differently (Williamson, Simpson, & Murray, 2008). There is no-known cure or cause for PD, meaning it is shrouded in uncertainty from the first symptom to the ongoing management process. This disease also affects care partners because of its variability in symptoms and progression. For this reason, this research, which is part of a larger study, interviewed both care partners of PwP (n= 10) and those diagnosed …

The Role Of Influencer Endorsement In Consumer Brand Engagement On Sina Weibo, Xiaofan Wei

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The strength and effectiveness of influencer advertising and influencer marketing make them becoming more and more popular on social media. Consumer online brand engagement, including consuming, contributing, and creating brand-related content, is closely related to a brand’s reputation and image. This study aims to determine how the two aspects related to influencer endorsement – influencer-follower parasocial interaction (PSI) and influencer-brand congruence -- affect three levels of consumer online brand-related activities (COBRAs) on Sina Weibo. Another purpose of the current study is to examine the mediation effect of personal identity (PI) and social identity (SI) in the relationship between influencer-follower parasocial …

A Research On Esports Users’ Motives And Satisfaction In China The Case Of League Of Legends, Qianyin Sun

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research mainly explores the motives and satisfaction of Chinese eSports users. Due to the changing role of eSports in China this year, the attitude of Chinese society towards eSports has changed from depreciation to praise, and the identity of belonging sense of game players has become one of the motives for them to continue playing League of Legends (LOL). In addition, as a milestone in eSports field, the playability of LOL itself and its pastime and social functions as a mass media will affect the motives and satisfaction of players. This survey used online survey to investigate the satisfaction …

The Research On The Determinants Of Users' Willingness To Pay For Chinese Paid Sports Model Based On Use And Gratification Theory, Jing Li

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study adopted use and gratification theory as a theoretical guide to explores the impact of individual needs, product variables, and copyright consciousness on audience’s willingness to pay in paid sports media in China. The most important part of this study was tested whether product variables act as a mediating factor and whether copyright consciousness plays as a moderating factor to influence the relationship between individual needs and willingness to pay. This quantitative study collects the data from a sample of 679 (valid N=568) Chinese adults who have some exposure or understanding of the paid sports model in mainland China. …

An Analysis Of The Language And The Relationship Of The President Of The Usa Related Twitter Accounts Toward The National Media, Sait Serif Turhan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research focuses on the language tone of the United State of America’s presidentrelated Twitter accounts and the ways of the interaction with the national media with their tweets. The literature provides how politicians utilize and for what purposes they use Twitter. Framing theory was applied to conceptualize the manner of conveying messages and impressions of politicians toward the national media. Content analysis was utilized to analyze 902 mediarelated tweets to find out the ways of the interactions and language tone and the level of emotions in tweets of US president-related Twitter accounts with the national media during the period …

2018 China-United States Trade War: Framing Analysis Of Online News Coverage In The United States And China As Portrayed By The New York Times And The People’S Daily, Jiangling Huang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Grounded in framing theory, this thesis explores a differential study by content analysis. The 2018 China-United States trade dispute is a major event that was officially launched by the United States and attracted worldwide attention. The ongoing trade disputes have had a huge impact on the economies of the two countries and the world economy, and a large number of news media have reported and commented on the incident. The purpose of the study was to determine the differences between news reports in the two countries depicted in the New York Times and the People’s Daily. The sample comes from …

Womenpreneurs In A Digital Environment: Utilizing Instagram To Build A Personal Brand, Michelle N. Nuñez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Personal branding on social media is a growing and expanding field. The present research works to uncover the processes and practices of womenpreneurs and the ways in which they utilize social media, specifically Instagram, to build and maintain their personal brands. Grounded theory is used to underpin the research and provide a basis of which the study is conducted. The review of literature provides the context necessary to support the methods of a content analysis and semi-structured interviews. There is a gap in research as it pertains to the conceptualization of personal branding practices on Instagram and the present study …

The Role Of Social Media Journalists In Tv News:Their Effects On The Profession And Identity Of Tv Journalism, The Quality Of News, And Theaudience Engagement, Yousuf Humiad Al Yousufi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Spurred by the rapid influence of social media in the news industry, an increased number of TV news stations have started assigning dedicated social media journalists (SMJ) in newsrooms to monitor, gather, verify, share news, and engage with audiences on the streams of social media. Consequently, drawing on the diffusion of innovation theory, the present study probes into TV journalists’ perceptions of the implications of the role of this new type of TV professionals in the identity and profession of journalism, the quality of news pertaining to the verification of misinformation, and the news audiences’ attractions and viewership by capitalizing …

Relationship Management Communications By Nhl Teams On Twitter, Kelsey M. Baker

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The sports industry is massive, bolstered by its relationship with media. A recent development in the sport industry is the advent of social media, which offers the potential for two-way communication between sports organizations and their relevant stakeholders. Relationship management theory helps cultivate an understanding of social media as a vehicle for value creation for an organization and its stakeholders. This thesis is a content analysis of relationship communications strategies on Twitter using the accounts of five National Hockey League teams.

This study builds upon existing literature by identifying stakeholder groups targeted on Twitter by NHL teams, defining subcategories in …

The Peruvian Minstrel: An Analysis Of The Representations Of Blackness In The Performance Of El Negro Mama From 1995 To 2016, Ana Lucía Mosquera Rosado

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Peruvian mass media has failed in addressing and representing the cultural and ethnic diversity of its country, as the presence and representation of ethnic minorities (indigenous and Afro-Peruvian) are almost exclusively reduced to the reproduction of stereotypes in comedy shows, in which they are often racialized and the target of offenses directly related with their ethnic identities. The analysis will focus on the figure of El Negro Mama, a very popular character in Peruvian television thought to be a portrait of the Afro-Peruvian population. Through the use of textual analysis, the paper will explore of this character in order to …

Objectification Of Women In Bollywood Item Numbers, Zahabia Z. Slatewala

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Although sexual objectification is commonplace in media culture, music videos provide the most potent examples of it. The current investigation makes an important contribution to the relevant literature regarding the objectification of women in song lyrics while simultaneously broadening the content used to assess objectification. It reflects the ways of objectification of women in India by analyzing Bollywood rap and item songs. Based on objectification theory, one of the primary goals in the present study was to measure differences between visual and behavioral sexual objectification, drawing on theoretically derived indicators of sexual objectification. It also concentrated on measuring the change …

Online Mmorpg Games In China: Player Motivations And The Mediating Role Of Flow, Jiaxin Liu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs) are gaining popularity and are being used widely in China. The aim of this study is to explore the relationship between the motivation and the experience of MMORPG players, and the effects of playing MMORPG through an extensive online survey of more than 300 Chinese participants (n = 305). Specifically, the findings support the complex relationship between variables, including the direct effects on motivation and flow, on the time the players invest in MMORPG games, and the mediated effects on motivations through flow. In addition to the importance of direct and indirect effects on …

Florida Newspaper History Chronology, 1783-2001, David Shedden

USF St. Petersburg campus Faculty Publications

This resource guide about the history of Florida newspapers begins in 1783 during the last days of British rule and ends with the first generation of news websites.

Women’S Body Image In The Media: Fitspiration On Instagram, Brook M. Bryant

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Several studies have been done to examine the effects of fitspiration on body image satisfaction using social comparison theory but there has yet to be a study done using framing theory to find out what exactly these images are focusing on. This research will use framing theory to examine what characteristics and body types are being seen on Instagram under the hashtag “fitspiration”.

Using a mixed method approach, this study uses a textual analysis to first get a larger sample set of fitspiration images on Instagram. It then uses in-depth interviews to get a deeper understanding of what the general …

Body Image, Self-Esteem And Eating Disturbance Among Chinese Women: Testing The Tripartite Influence Model, Weiwei Wang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the study is to confirm the reasons behind young Chinese women’s eating disturbances and self-esteem. The researcher uses the Tripartite Influence model to illustrate the relationship between internalization and pressures in the form of peer, family, and media pressure. It further reveals the relationship between internalization and self-esteem and eating disorders. Besides conforming with the mode of young Chinese females, it aims at finding out the reasons behind each relevant relationship. One point of the study is the different impact of media pressure on young Chinese females; the influence of media tends to be much lower in …

Newsroom Narratives And Newsroom Solutions: Local Print Media In The Digital Age, John Pendygraft

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis seeks solutions to vexing problems facing media institutions today by exploring media narratives n the context of established anthropological theory. It is based in one local newsroom, the Tampa Bay Times, where I have worked for 22 years. The ethnography is a personal journey that draws on those decades of newsroom experience, social science theory, participant observation, interviews with journalists, and personal reflections. It examines dangerous historic periods of social dehumanization to put the political nature of today’s local print media crisis in context, and concludes that the greatest modern challenges to legacy journalism’s broken business model …

Gender Sexualization In Digital Games: Exploring Female Character Changes In Tomb Raider, Jingjing Liu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study is aimed at exploring a better understanding of gender-biased context in digital games. Based upon a female analysis of Tomb Raider series, this study attempts to compare the appearance and figure of female characters in video games by researching the representative game. A focus group with a group of women from different countries has been used to better understand how women feel and react to female images in the video game Tomb Raider and figure out how female protagonist Lara Croft changed in the video game. The thesis attempts to offer a better understanding of biased context in …

Star Power, Pandemics, And Politics: The Role Of Cultural Elites In Global Health Security, Holly Lynne Swayne

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Celebrities have historically served a variety of roles in society ranging from the inspirational to the cautionary, utilizing their platforms of visibility to promote themselves, their work, as well as their social and political causes. This study focuses on celebrities as activists engaging with global health issues, with particular attention to the form this engagement takes, the publicity it receives in the mass media, and the types of global health issues that receive the most celebrity attention. An interdisciplinary approach drawing from theories of power, social movement theory, agenda-setting, and cultural studies is used to achieve greater understanding of underlying …

The Influence Of Instagram Selfies On Female Millennials’ Appearance Satisfaction, Diliara Bagautdinova

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Scholars have proved negative effects of social network sites on women’s body image caused by social comparison processes. However, only a few studies have examined the effects of Instagram on women’s appearance satisfaction and no selfies were taken into consideration in regard to that issue. The purpose of this research was to examine the social comparison theory through the lens of Instagram selfies and determine the effects of selfies on women’s appearance satisfaction. In-depth interviews with 26 female millennials, ages 18 to 32, reveal the re-defined standard of an ideal body image, shifting away from being skinny to becoming fit, …

An Analysis Of Organ Donation Presentations On Weibo, Shengfei Li

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis analyzes the presentation of organ donation organization on Weibo. This study used content analysis to find out the Love.Hope organ donation organization’s main content of Weibo’s content.

The main content includes six themes. The theme of popularizing organ donation knowledge is the majority. Through analyzing the correlation of content of each themes with shares, likes, and comments. It is concluded that people are more inclined to engage with Weibo posts with popularization of organ donation knowledge and stories of organ donors and recipients, and people also concern about the organ supply and demand situation in China.

It turns …

Yet Another Ferguson Effect: An Exploratory Content Analysis Of News Stories On Police Brutality And Deadly Force Before And After The Killing Of Michael Brown, Carl Root

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research examined the police-media relationship through an exploratory content analysis of news articles indexed as police brutality and/or deadly force published in six newspapers (The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Denver Post and USA Today) between August 9th, 2013 and August 9th, 2015. This timeframe was selected in order to determine whether significant differences exist between articles published in the year before the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri on August 9th, 2014 compared to those published in the year afterward. Specifically, this research examined whether and how news stories pre and …

Self-Esteem, Motivation, And Self-Enhancement Presentation On Wechat, Xiao Qiu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the present study was to analyze whether self-esteem stability moderated the association between self-esteem level and the forms of self-enhancement strategies. Previous research has found that self-esteem level can predict the forms of self-enhancement, whereas the advances in the conceptualization of self-esteem recommend that the self-esteem stability is another essential variable in terms of analyzing the relationship between self-esteem and self-enhancement. Depending on the relevant researches on use and gratification theory, which indicate that people use social media for self-enhancement and fulfilling their inner needs. This research focused on examining the forms of individual’s self-enhance on WeChat …

The Portrayal Of Women In The Oldest Russian Women’S Magazine “Rabotnitsa” From 1970-2017, Anastasiia Utiuzh

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study focuses on the portrayal of women images in Russia, particularly the transformation from Soviet woman to modern woman based on the analysis of one of the oldest Russian women’s magazine- “Rabotnitsa”. The sample for this study covers two periods: three decades of Russia during the era of the Soviet Union period (1970-1990) and two decades of the Post-Soviet period (1991-2017). A total of 586 relevant images were identified; 311 images by Rabotnitsa over the three decades during the Soviet Union’s period by random sampling of 20 issues published by Rabotnitsa between 1970- 1990, and 275 images by Rabotnitsa …

Perception Of Kazakhstan In The U.S Through The New York Times Coverage, Tursynay Alikhanova

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research study examines how the image of Kazakhstan was covered by the New York Times during 11 years and analyzed the most common perception of the Central Asian country, using framing as a theoretical framework. Textual-analysis approach was used as a method, exploration produced seven frames. The textual analysis approach demonstrated that negative coverage prevailed in the coverage of Kazakhstan, “in spite of friendly relationships with the USA”. Kazakhstan was framed as “authoritarian” “petro-state”, which got independence, but still followed “soviet-style” politics and was largely influenced by its “hegemon Russia”. The country, which “has a complex about being recognized …